Armstrong 10th as Ticktum tops in FIA F2

Dan Ticktum managed his hard tyres to perfection around Silverstone to survive a late charge from Christian Lundgaard, on fresher, faster medium Pirelli rubber, and bring home a historic first victory in FIA Formula 2 at his home circuit.

Kiwi Marcus Armstrong left Silverstone without any championship points after finishing an impressive tenth, having started from 16th. Armstrong took advantage of a late safety-car period, making a pitstop for fresh tyres and moving through into the top ten.

“That was one of my toughest weekends for a long time,” commented Armstrong. “We’ll work hard over the next few days to figure it all out and come back stronger for the next round.”

Starting from pole, Ticktum led for the entire race, but came under threat in the final lap after ART Grand Prix had made the brave decision to pit Lundgaard during a safety car period and change his heavily degraded hard compounds to mediums.

UNI-Virtuosi suffered a race to forget, with both of their drivers finishing outside of the points from strong positions. Ilott spun from second and was forced to retire midway through the race, before Zhou suffered a similar fate, spinning from fourth on the final lap. The Chinese driver was able to get going again, but he’d dropped to ninth.

A slow pitstop during the safety car period crushed any hope of a top eight finish for Championship leader Robert Shwartzman, who departs Round 4 without scoring a single point.

Shwartzman retains the Championship lead with 81 points, eight ahead of Ilott. Lundgaard’s tally is up to 69 in third, 11 ahead of fourth place Mazepin, while Ticktum is two points behind in fifth. In the Teams’ Championship, UNI-Virtuosi are first on 124 points, two ahead of PREMA on 122, with ART third, Hitech Grand Prix fourth and DAMS fifth.

Sprint Race results